NY grand jury not expected to consider Trump case Thursday, source says … A Manhattan grand jury will not hear testimony, deliberate or vote on the hush-money case against former President Donald Trump Thursday, a source has confirmed to Fox News.  —  Since the grand jury does not sit on Fridays …

DeSantis Calls Putin a ‘War Criminal,’ Clarifying Earlier Comment on Ukraine  —  The Florida governor and presumed G.O.P. presidential candidate previously described the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a “territorial dispute” and did not mention the Russian president.

China Says It Opposes a Forced Sale of TikTok  —  Biden administration has demanded that video app divest itself from its Beijing-based parent or face nationwide ban  —  SINGAPORE—China said it would strongly oppose any forced sale of TikTok, responding for the first time to a Biden administration demand …

Sinema Trashes Dems: ‘Old Dudes Eating Jell-O’  —  The Arizona senator courts GOP donors by ridiculing her former Democratic colleagues.  Ever since Sen. Kyrsten Sinema became an independent in December, her Democratic colleagues have been restrained about the shift, careful not to alienate …

Biden approval dips near lowest point: AP-NORC poll  —  Approval of President Joe Biden has dipped slightly since a month ago, nearing the lowest point of his presidency as his administration tries to project a sense of stability while confronting a pair of bank failures and inflation that remains stubbornly high.

Most trans adults say transitioning made them more satisfied with their lives  —  The Washington Post and KFF surveyed one of the largest randomized samples of U.S. transgender adults to date about their childhoods, feelings and lives  —  Transgender Americans experience stigma …

Man at Center of Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory Demands Retraction From Fox  —  A lawyer for Ray Epps has demanded that the Fox host Tucker Carlson publicly apologize for “false and defamatory statements” that Mr. Epps served as a federal agent during the Capitol attack.

Bragg fights GOP effort to force his testimony on Trump probe  —  Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) called demands from House GOP leaders to force his testimony an “unlawful incursion” on his ongoing probe into former President Trump's role in a hush money scandal.

A nightmare for women in Idaho could be coming to all of us soon  —  There's news from Idaho, and it's not good.  The only hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, is terminating the provision of labor and delivery services.  Sandpoint is the largest city in Bonner County, with just shy of 9,000 people.

Mental health curriculum is the latest target in Miami-Dade schools  —  Invoking Florida's new parents' rights law, the Miami-Dade School Board is embarking on a review of how students learn about managing their emotions, collaborating with others and developing their identities …

Where is DeSantis traveling on state business?  Legislature wants to make it a secret  —  Citing an increase in public records requests for the governor's travel schedule, Florida legislators are advancing a bill that would shield from the public any information about how and where Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials go.

The Secret Joke at the Heart of the Harvard Affirmative-Action Case  —  A federal official wrote a parody of Harvard's attitude toward Asian Americans and shared it with the dean of admissions.  Why did a judge try to hide that from the public?  —  Last fall, some mysterious new activity appeared on the Supreme Court's docket.

Court rejects Trump's urgent bid to keep lawyer's records from special counsel  —  The ruling effectively permits the Justice Department to circumvent Trump's attorney-client privilege after a lower-court judge found that the documents likely contain evidence of a crime.

Matt Taibbi Can't Comprehend That There Are Reasons To Study Propaganda Information Flows, So He Insists It Must Be Nefarious  —  from the not-how-any-of-this-works dept  —  Over the last few months, Elon Musk's handpicked journalists have continued revealing less and less with each new edition of the …

What connects Trump's likely arrest with the bank bailouts?  —  Answer: the anti-democracy movement  —  What connects the two biggest stories now dominating the news — Donald Trump's likely arrest and the Fed's bailouts of shaky banks?  —  Start with multi-billionaire Peter Thiel, and follow the money.

AP source: Blackhawks will not wear Pride-themed jerseys  —  The Chicago Blackhawks will not wear Pride-themed warmup jerseys before Sunday's Pride Night game against Vancouver because of security concerns involving a Russian law that expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBTQ rights in the country.

Nigerian Senator Found Guilty of Organ Harvesting Plot in UK  —  A Nigerian politician and his wife were found guilty by a London jury of plotting to bring a Lagos street trader to the UK in order to harvest one of his organs for their sick daughter.  —  Ike Ekweremadu, a senior Nigerian senator …

Jack Dorsey's Block Tumbles 17% After Short-Seller Hindenburg's Report  —  The company accuses Block of “wildly” overstating user counts while understating customer acquisition costs.  —  Fintech payments company Block (SQ) is down 17% after being the subject of the latest attack from notable short-seller Hindenburg Research.

California could become the 1st state to ban caste discrimination  —  A bill introduced Wednesday in the California Senate could be a historic win in the fight against caste discrimination in the U.S. If it is signed into law, it would make the state the first to explicitly name caste as a protected category.

Israel passes law shielding Netanyahu from being removed amid protests over judicial changes  —  The Israeli parliament on Thursday passed a law that would limit the ways a sitting prime minister can be declared unfit for office as part of a package of bills the government is pushing through in its controversial judicial overhaul.

Subscriptions can be hell to cancel.  Now, the FTC wants a new “click to cancel” rule.  —  Subscriptions can be tough to cancel, with some companies putting consumers on lengthy holds or subjecting them to sales pitches to try to change their minds.  It's such a pain point that subscriptions …

The Ciskei experiment: a libertarian fantasy in apartheid South Africa  —  In the 1980s, South African libertarians set up a deregulated zone that they sold to the world as 'Africa's Switzerland'.  It was a sham, but with its clusters of sweatshops, it was very modern - and in some ways it anticipated the world we live in today

The Trump RINO Test Is Ridiculous  —  He's the real Republican In Name Only.  —  Records aren't kept on such things, but Donald Trump is clearly the most promiscuous user of the word “RINO” in Republican Party history.  Francis Chung/POLITICO  —  Rich Lowry is editor in chief of National Review …

Arizona Supreme Court rejects most of Kari Lake's election challenge  —  Arizona's top court has declined to hear Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's challenge to her election loss, but kept the case alive by sending one of Lake's claims back to a county judge to review.

Abortion legal again in Wyoming after judge blocks ban  —  Abortion is legal again in Wyoming after a Teton County judge Wednesday temporarily blocked a new ban on the procedure while a new legal challenge winds through the courts.  —  “Wyomingites voted into law that they have a fundamental right …

Drug Trafficking Investigation Yields Largest Methamphetamine Bust in West Virginia History  —  For Immediate Release  —  U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of West Virginia  —  Federal Grand Jury Indicts 30 For Their Roles in Methamphetamine Trafficking Organization Operating in Charleston

A Broken Pipe in Jackson Left Residents Without Drinking Water  —  As a water shortage ballooned into a crisis in Jackson, Miss., the leak grew bigger and bigger, gouging out a swimming pool-size crater in the earth.  —  Sarah Fowler is reporting on the water crisis in Jackson, Miss. …

What it looks like when a country doesn't trust its banks  —  I went to Argentina and the US did a bank run.  —  I've been in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the last month, including through the recent turmoil in the banking industry in the United States and Europe.